Promotion, Sponsorship, and Organization.
You watch a live stream of pool in the US, (forget TV) and it's primarily an end table in some bar, with people milling around the playing area, some guy stops to talk with his head in front of THE static (and in most cases not even HD) camera, the players are wearing jeans or shorts, and sometimes T shirts,,,,,and on and on,,,,,,there is not much there that sponsors want to pay for, and nothing that sports networks want on their broadcasts.
Compare this with World Snooker,, they actually have a tour schedule, a qualifying school, are very well organized,,,,,,,a championship in World Snooker is a major production,,,,stands full of people, HD cameras that show any number of shot angles, knowledgeable expert commentary in most cases,,,,,,,it's like a Rock Concert,, and the players are all stars. Ronnie O'Sullivan won over $400,000 at the Crucible a few weeks ago, Ali Carter in 2nd place got half that. That one event probably paid out more than all the combined championships in the US for the entire year.
There has to be changes made to US Pool or it's as big as it'll ever be.
For the most part, there is absolutely nowhere for youth to play, or learn to play, unless they are in the very small percentage of homes with a pool table. Why room owners aren't running non-alcohal youth hours,,,,,saturday Morning youth leagues,,,,etc,,,,,,,,is beyond me. This in my view is spawning customers in the future.
The PGA does the same thing, qualifiers, tour schools that teach ettiquette, handling themselves with media in a way that promotes golf as a whole, and teaches them the business end of the game as well, Tour Cards, etc,,,,,,
It's a sad thing that the US has hundreds of the best pool players in the world and there probably aren't more than 10 of them that can survive on their tournament play earnings.
Pool Halls are great, I love being there, and it's a great breeding ground for learning to play, and play competitively, but there has to be more, above that level. There has to be, just like any other sport that is successful, a point where the game is promoted with morals and ettiquette, and at a level where it can give back, an organization that promotes youth play and instruction, therefore promoting the future of the sport itself, and as an organization that gives back, drawing fans to events, which helps local economies, donations to charities, etc,,,,,,as long as all we do is show up and gamble and pass money back and forth between each other nothing is being done to help the sport. The money is just a way of keeping score, and nobody wins all the time.
The problem I see is that everyone in the pool industry is trying to make money on everyone else in the pool industry. Anyone who has ever done any type of succesful business knows you make the most money on other peoples money,,,,,,,,,in other words, what we have is not enough in terms of people involved, promotion, and organization, which in the end, spawn sponsorship.
We have to get more people involved, promote pool better as a whole, get youth involved, sponsors like organization and popularity,,,,,,where else should we start?
